Tuesday, October 22, 2013

The pictures from Chris and Jamie's wedding came back and they look flippin' amazing! Such a stylish wedding those two pulled off, and Manchik Photography captured! I was thrilled to be a part of it, doing the bouquets, bouts and corsages for them. We Like Flowers represent!

These bouquets included just about everything that I love in them. The succulents were so perfect, and I loved that we wrapped them in mint yarn for the girls to play off the greens of the succulent blooms. So crafty!

The blushing bride, her bouquet and her aching wrists. That sucker was heavy!

Which is why she probably made Chris hold it.

Love that pom-pom aisle!

Thank you for the pictures Jamie, Chris and the fantastic Manchiks! All photos courtesy of them of course, ain't none of those that came from my iPhone!

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Success! Kurtis & Dannielle (aka Bubby) got married yesterday at Verandas Beach House in Manhattan Beach and it was SUCH a beautiful wedding. They both have amazing, warm, and fun families and friends that made it a really sweet and loving and awesome party. They made me cry during their vows (that was mostly Karen's fault, she turned on the waterworks first which got me going), and we felt so lucky to be included in the celebration.

We Like Flowers were representin' at the wedding too, adding to the awesomeness if I do say so myself. Bubby was a very hands-on bride with the flower planning, shopping, arranging etc which was great since I didn't have my partner in floral crime (Mandy is doing flowers for another wedding today! WLF is so popular). She rounded up 4 of her girls to also help which made everything go so much faster, and with less stress. I love arranging flowers, but picking them up at the mart, unwrapping them, cleaning up all the mess, etc is a lot less fun. They all helped a ton so it was truly a group effort.

Enough typey-typey, more pictures!

Dannielle, Karen and I did a recon mission at the flower mart a few months ago to get a clear idea of the flowers she liked and more importantly, the flowers she did NOT like. We got clear on the colors she wanted, specific shades of everything, and snapped reference shots for the flower order. Dannielle gave me some inspiration pictures which are always helpful, and we went from there. We placed the order with Grower's Direct at the LA Flower Mart and they were so great to work with. I emailed them our list of what we needed and the quantities, included the reference shots for the specific colors we needed, and they quoted us and took care of the rest. When we picked up the flowers, almost everything was perfect, just the color of the hypericum berries were a bit off, but we were able to leave them off the order and find the color we needed at a different stall. I'm pretty sure we got wholesale prices on everything too, because the final bill was about $70 less than what we were quoted! When does that ever happen?? Special shout-outs to Brenda and Julio who were so helpful!

So fast forward a few hours after picking up the flowers and caffeinating ourselves... arrangements!

There were 8 tables plus the sweetheart table, so we did 9 of these, roughly looking the same. We each did a couple and busted them out a lot faster than I thought we would!

Isn't this venue pretty? We arranged most of the flowers on Thursday but I went back on Friday by myself to place everything and finish the rest of the arrangements and bouquets and bouts, etc. As I was placing them on the tables, several soon-to-be brides came through on a tour of the venue and asked for my business card. Ha! I'm not a real florist, I just play one on the blogs. Nice compliment though!

These were the other arrangements I made with the leftover flowers, to place on the other non-dining tables. They were all kind of different, and fun to make. We did such a good job with the flower order, using almost everything and not needing any extras. I think I'm getting better at estimating how many flowers are needed to pull off a specific number of arrangements. It's all about the math!

Caila & Kayla did this arrangement, fast little apprentices!

And the bouquets! I loved how these turned out. I don't have a good picture of Dannielle's all-white bouquet, but I'll post it when we get the professional shots back. The one below is one of 5 bridesmaid bouquets that I did. Dannielle wanted them on the smaller side so it was basically just one show-stopper cafe au lait dahlia, a china mum, two white dahlias, some white carnations (sorry Karen Miller- they're good fillers!), white stock, peach roses, and white spray roses. They smelled AWESOME. All bouquets, bouts and corsages were wrapped in a raw muslin fabric, so pretty. Dannielle's bouquet got peach muslin overlaid with peach lace, and Kurtis' bout was the same peach muslin, but everyone else got the natural muslin.

These buckets lined the aisle and we just filled them with three hydrangeas. Easy peasy.

One of the small cocktail table arrangements:

And the cakes! I did the big stock arrangement in the back (that stuff is SO fragrant, it made the whole upper level smell amazing), but the cake was someone else. I felt so bad, that was the one thing I forgot to do. Out of sight, out of mind, even though it was written in my notes. Thankfully this was all Bubby wanted, just a few dahlias placed around the one cake they were cutting into so I think one of the girls dismantled one of the smaller arrangements I did to pull these flowers off for the cake. Crisis averted!

I'll post the photographer's better pictures when I see them! Congratulations Kurtis & Bubby! We love you guys!

Monday, October 14, 2013

Just a heads-up to those without blog readers... I added a gadget to the blog which you should see in the upper right corner of the blog page. It says "Follow by email" and you type in your email, click submit, and whenever I do a post, it gets sent to your inbox. I know I've been sucking this year with regular posting, so if you're checking my blog and getting disappointed each time you don't see a new post, this will let you ignore my blog until you're notified to check out my awesome new post! Thanks to David and Brooke for cluing me in to this feature that was lacking previously!

Elsa just turned 27 months and is such a skinny little bean pole, taking after her daddy. She was definitely tall enough to swing her leg up and get out of her crib (although luckily never tried it) and I was afraid she was going to do so any second and hurt herself, so we decided it was time to make the conversion from crib to toddler bed. She's going to be sleeping in non-cribs at the grandparents' houses over the holidays, so switching now also gives us some time to get her used to it.

Her awesome little Sniglar crib from IKEA converts to a toddler daybed with one side removed and a thick bar in it's place. I took charge of the conversion while Jeff hosted guests at the Long Beach Open Studio tour this weekend, and converted the bed and sewed up some bedding for her. Every big girl bed needs a real pillow and a duvet me thinkest.

I got her toddler comforter insert and toddler pillow insert from The Land of Nod which just opened up down here. It's a down alternative but super snuggly. A little pricey but it's good quality and she'll be in this bed for a few years, plus I was saving money by making her bedding which can be stupid expensive at these cute baby stores.

I made the duvet cover and pillow case from a vintage flat sheet with a sweet floral pattern, and a white flat sheet with little white polka dots from one of our own sheet sets. We never use the flat sheets in a set, just a fitted one and our duvet so the flat sheets become great yardage to use for sewing projects. The vintage sheet even had a piping seam detail that I incorporated into the duvet and used at the faux-seam on the pillowcase, adding a nice detail for no extra work at all! I also used the finished edge on each of the sheets on the side of the duvet that would have the opening to put in the comforter so I wouldn't have to finish it myself. I'm so smart/lazy.

I got this sewing book, Baby Stuff, back when I was pregnant and had flagged this sleeping friends pattern to make for Elsa when it was time for a toddler duvet. It is so sweet, and was easy to do once I gave up on the idea of folding over the appliques a half-inch (pain in the butt to do when it's a curved seam, you gotta notch that stuff out to make it curve) and then hand-stitching them on. I was seriously getting ready to ship it to my mom and ask her to do it instead (she is too good with details like this, me- notsomuch), when I thought of just zig-zag stitching them on instead. I used thread that matched the friends, and set the stitch to be super close, and zipped along attaching them all to the front cover in less than an hour. The hand-embroidered faces took about 30 minutes, and that was just from having to thread the needle so many times.

The worst part about this project was sewing on the buttons for the closure, but even that wasn't bad. My machine does great buttonholes, and I hand sewed on the 7 buttons which gave me a hand cramp, but I like the look of them so much more than velcro or ties.

When we showed her the bed last night she was SO excited. She hopped right in and got under the covers and said "COMFY!! COZY!!" After we tucked her in, she got out about five minutes later and said "MOORING (morning)!" to me in the living room. She got tucked back in, a book read to her by mom, and then another by dad, lights off and she was out. As far as we know, she stayed in bed the whole night and didn't fall out (we wedged my pregnancy body pillow under the crib to make a padded transition from the mattress to the rug in case she rolled out) and got herself up at 7:15 and padded in to our room to wake us up. My little alarm clock. :)

Nap time went well too! We got this in the bag. As my dad says, next up- potty training. Eesh.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Oh Georgia... you were just as country as I hoped! We drank with the cows, ate grits and fried green tomatoes, got Piggly Wiggly shirts (thanks David!!), and saw one of my bestest friends get married while wearing jeans!

Surprise of all surprises, Brooke and David told us the night we got in that they were getting married down at the Rabun County Courthouse the next day and we were going to be their witnesses! I was planning on spending at least one day convincing them that our trip was the PERFECT time for them to get hitched (we've all known for months that they are soul mates destined to spend the rest of their lives together and Brooke ain't no girly girl that wanted a big princess wedding so a courthouse was expected- although I wanted her in a 50's dress with a pillbox hat but I guess that's not very country), but they saved me the trouble!

We marched down there in the morning with their girls in tow (David has two girls, ages 4 and 7, from a previous marriage so Brookie became a step-mommy too!) and wham-bam-marry them-ma'am they were husband and wife!

Smooch! AMERICUH!

The new Hopkins family, girls being excited little whackadoos:

We went to brunch to celebrate, and then over to Brooke's new-old place which will be the cats' house for the next month until they do the full move. Combining the families gives them FIVE cats (!!) and two dogs. Good thing they're in the country!

This is Brooke's view from her old front porch:

Here's Jeff holding Zeus, Brooke's massive cat:

WHATCHA LOOKIN' AT, COW!?

I guess September is caterpillar season in Georgia? These little guys were all over the roads, and everyone swerves to avoid squishing them.

Kitty! This is David's cat Tinkerbell renamed Kitty. She was tiny and adorable, albeit a little sassy. She needs to be sassy to hold her own though amongst the Hopkins' menagerie.

Gin & tonics, cows, purple pants and my Brooke. Happy times.

Parker (Jackson) keeping an eye on the cows at their fence line:

We got a quick tour of B&D's school where they teach, it's a beautiful school and I'm tempted to ship Elsa off to them for high school. Just kidding! I plan on being all up in Elsa's business when she's a t'nager and that'll be hard to accomplish from across the country.

SUCH a great trip, thanks for hosting us Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins! We miss you and all your babies already, and can't wait to see you in the summer! Our offer still stands to take the girls to Disneyland while you drink margaritas and eat chilaquiles at El Ranchito! It'll be our early anniversary present to you. :)

And another huge thank you to my parents who flew down to Long Beach to stay with our little munchkin while we were away! I think this pretty much sums up how their weekend was: